1 day ago • 97%

Self hosted solution for phone photo backup

Hi,

I’m trying to find a way to have my iPhone’s photos be automatically (or even manually) backed up/synced with my home server.

I heard about photo prism here and got it up and running, however I could not find a free app that lets you sync. Photo sync is their main recommendation and it puts high quality photo backup behind premium.

Is there any solution that lets you backup your photos through home wifi?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: thanks to the suggestions, I found this handy chart listing many and comparing them: https://meichthys.github.io/foss_photo_libraries/

56 comments

Nextcloud. Works super well.

8
Like everyone is saying, Immich.

But keep an eye on updates because it is under active development so breaking changes tend to happen every once in a while.

24
- Does Immich auto update / breaking changes?
  
  1
  
  The server doesn't, except if you have watchtower or something similar.
  
  The app auto updates on your phone though, unless turned off.
  
  1
  
  Does Immich auto update
  
  Only if you auto-update the docker images on your server.
  
  There have been a few breaking chances, but it just takes a minute to tweak the compose file and it's up and running again.
  
  1
  
  On itself it doesn't auto update, you do get a notification in the app if your server is outdated.
  
  You can setup watchtower or something similar to update it but it is discouraged due to the active development
  
  5
Immich has completely replaced Google Photos for me, love it!

My only bugbear is that it is updated very frequently (what a nice problem to have!) which in my case requires a manual once-over of my docker-compose file every time in case there are breaking changes.

14
- I go the other way, auto-update and fix the file if it goes down lol
  
  1
  
  As a developer myself I'm not sure if I would trust any application to safely handle a configuration that has become invalid due to a breaking change, especially not an app that is still under active development! Better safe than sorry.
  
  2
https://immich.app/

86
- This is amazing, exactly what I was looking for!
  
  7
- Sounds overkill just for backing up files.
  
  1
- Absolutely phenomenal. Great app, hosting, and development community.
  
  It's a good reason to start self hosting.
  
  17
- This. Its excellent. Cross platform. AI search. Location tagging. Everythibg u want.
  
  6
Immich. Come for the photo backup, stay for everything else because it's awesome.

43
I use Immich, and I love it.

16
I use syncthing to keep all my documents and pictures synced between my devices.

16
- Yeah this.
  
  I don't keep all my photos in sync though. Only the last few months.
  
  I'm using photoprism to browse photos on my server but I've been meaning to look at other options because it's not that great IMO.
  
  2
  
  I swapped out photoprism for immich and I'm much happier.
  
  3
  
  Bit its deprecated now because Google pissed off the only developer. I mean forget photos, I need a whole phone file system backup tool that is self hosted. I don't want any of my stuff to end up in Google servers. I take lots of research notes and photos. WTF. That shit should be illegal.
  
  1
I think right now it is a throwdown between:

Nextcloud Photos

Immich

Ente Photos
9
- Nextcloud photos is in the "proof of concept" stage, not even alpha.
  
  -1
  
  I've been using it for a couple of years though. I have not really had any problems with auto-upload from my android phone. So not sure if that "not even alpha stage" comment is correct. I don't know the state of it on iOS though.
  
  3
Immich has a setting that does automatic photo backup over WiFi, I use the android app as a Google photos replacement. You can choose however many folders on your phone as you want (I just do camera roll) and enable only backup over WiFi and it backs up all the photos in original quality. I self-host the server on my Synology with a reverse proxy (can't forward ports at my current place due to cgnat) so I can access it from anywhere.

I believe the app is cross platform so the iPhone version should be identical to the android one.

19
Nextcloud's instant upload feature?
Whenever I take a picture or screenshot it's uploaded there.

Nextcloud might be overkill if that's the only feature you need. I've never used the more involved stuff like chat or document editing, just sync.

16
- That feature kinda works, but it's incredibly fragile. It has caused so many annoyances for me over the last year or so that I'm finally done with the thing. Just go with immich instead, less headache.
  
  3
- Nextcloud has so many bugs when you store a lot of files, and photos on a phone accumulate to a big number. Both their Android app and server doesn't deal with a few years' worth of photos.
  
  3
  
  I have years worth of photos backed up from my phone (android) on Nextcloud, it's working pretty well... but it matters how you set up the auto upload and a few other things, and I'mnot claiming it's without issues.
  
  For example, I set it to move files into Nextcloud's folder after uploading, so they appear as locally synced, and can be deleted to free up space if needed (maybe even automatically, not sure). Also, I set it to also upload existing files, because since they get moved, anything that's still there clearly needs to be uploaded.
  
  There are a few issues viewing media from the app, sometimes, but I use the Memories app :)
  
  I've been meaning to try immich, looks pretty good, but I use Nextcloud for much more than just photos, so I'd have to keep both and have them sync somehow, and I'm not sure how to do that.
  
  1
- You can use the Nextcloud app with the much simpler KaraDAV backend. Works fine for photo backups.
  
  6
I've been using folder sync pro for ages and ages https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full

It basically syncs a folder from your phone to a folder on your home servers share.

I think it was paid.... But it's been years so I couldn't tell you.

8
- I think it was paid.... But it's been years so I couldn't tell you.
  
  It's currently $3.99 in the Play Store for me, with a crossed-out list price of $6.49. Not a bad deal.
  
  4
  
  Yeah I've definitely gotten that out of it.
  
  It backs up my entire phone to my server.
  
  3
I have all my photos synced to iCloud and have Apple Photos running on my Mac with the option to “always download originals” enabled. Then, I run a daily backup of my Mac’s photo library to my NAS. For this, I’m using CCC at the moment but I’m planning to switch to restic.

2
It doesn't matter what software you use, Apple doesn't allow automatic backups on their phones. Consider buying a different phone that allows you to use it as you see fit.

-4
- Photo sync claims it does and as I mentioned in the post, I’m okay with needing to trigger it myself via its own app.
  
  5
  
  You shouldn't be okay with that.
  
  0
- That is not true, it is completely possible with systems like Nextcloud and Owncloud. I have one set up at home and it's great.
  
  The phone app auto-uploads your chosen pics directory's contents to your chosen cloud backup folder on a schedule or any time you want. And it's free software.
  
  1
  
  Does it automatically delete pictures when you're out of space ?
  
  1

You've viewed 56 comments.